There’s always a new game, a new series to look forward to for the players. That was the theme of Rahul Dravid’s answer when asked about how the players are coping after the heartbreak suffered in the World Cup 2023 final last month with the Test series against South Africa starting on Tuesday.
It’s been a little over a month since India lost to Australia in the World Cup final in Ahmedabad, after being on a 10-game hot unbeaten streak.
While for the senior players – Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, R Ashwin, and Jasprit Bumrah – the upcoming 2-Test series against the Proteas is their first series since that final, other players have participated in three white-ball series so far that have happened in the past month.
Two days out from the first Test in Centurion, Rahul Dravid attended a press conference, in which he was asked how the players are moving on.
We were all disappointed, but we have all moved on: Rahul Dravid
Rahul Dravid pointed out that the players have built the habit of moving on from losses and heartbreaks since a young age, and they are looking forward to the next big challenge. The head coach said that everyone, including captain Rohit Sharma, has moved on from the World Cup final loss.
“It’s happened in the past, yes it’s disappointing, but we have moved on from it. Now you have got something ahead of you. Players are good at that (moving on). We are forced to do that, we learn how to do that from the time we are kids,” Rahul Dravid said.
“Every time you get out, you are disappointed, you have another innings to play, you have to perform in the next innings, so you can’t let the disappointment of the past stay with you. As cricketers, you learn how to deal with that, from the time you are kids. If you let the disappointment in the past stay with you, it will affect you in the next game.”
“Yes, the guys are disappointed, we were all disappointed. But we have all moved on from it now and we are looking forward to something that is ahead of us.”
India’s squad for Tests: Rohit Sharma (C), Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Abhimanyu Easwaran, KL Rahul (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Mohd. Siraj, Mukesh Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah (VC), Prasidh Krishna, KS Bharat (wk)